"Hey uh, dude - you want to build a race car?"

For a long time we've been big fans of road racing - we've taken our daily drivers to various autocrosses and high performance driving events, but felt that the wear and tear on our daily drivers was not the smartest idea.

After a lot of discussion and a few beers, we decided to start along the path to our own track whore. After even more discussion and even more beer, we decided to use a Lotus Seven design from Coveland Motorsports, located near Saratoga Springs NY, which will allow us to build a classic Lotus Seven and adapt parts from a donor Mazda Miata.

We ordered our kit when we went up to visit Coveland in early August, '07. Coveland is a great shop that works out of an old barn and builds/restores/races old british sports cars (TVR's, Lotus, MGB, etc.). A great bunch of guys and road racers make up the company.

After speaking with the company's owner, designer and fabricator, we decided exactly what we wanted. We put a deposit down for a full tubular frame Miata kit that will let us use nearly the entire drivetrain from the miata donor car, and also include custom body panels and all accessories (windshield, lights, etc). Most importantly, we are having them build in a full SCCA legal roll cage for our little Seven.

We had a chance to ride in a completed Coveland Seven when we went up to the company, and we really got a feel for how insanely raw and terrifying this car is. The seats are inches from the ground, there are no doors, nothing to protect you except for a harness and roll bar (in our case a roll cage), the whole suspension is exposed as you tear up the road, the exhaust pipe is 2 feet from your ears, the gas tank is 6 inches from your back and needless to say it's a tight, tight, tight fit. It's a trip, for sure.

Fortunately, we both have all the same goals for racing and we are going to have a great time building this kit over the next few months (ok, years). This car will not only destroy most everything else on the track, but will also be as reliable as anything else on the road. That's right, this will be a street-legal, DOT approved race car. This aint no trailer queen, we're driving this bitch to the track!

We have a lot worked out so far and a lot more to go. When finished, it'll weigh about 1300lbs with a full roll cage and coilovers at all 4 corners. She should be a hell of a beast.

If this car doesn't kill us, we're gonna remember it for a long time...